


Christmas Contours

by TheTKSaint



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Christmas, Christmas Presents, F/F, Gift Exchange, Gift Giving, Holiday Fic Exchange, Holidays, Long-Distance Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27850498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTKSaint/pseuds/TheTKSaint
Summary: Catra and Adora exchange gifts at the start of their holiday break from college together. A “Crossing Contours” spin-off written for Soy as a Secret Santa gift!
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Kudos: 20





	Christmas Contours

Adora comically paunched her hips as far as she could when the door opened. “Bwo-ho-ho-ho! Merry Cat-mas!”

“You are so lame,” Catra deadpanned from the corner of her mouth. Red always was Adora’s color, though, she thought. “Come here.”

Adora walked in. “Hey, I spent, like, at least eight minutes coming up with that on the drive over.”

“Just... come here.” Catra hooked her thumb in a worn belt loop, trying to make her posture inviting. She typically loathed crop tops, but had borrowed a black one in attempt to impress for the occasion.

Adora feigned a deeper, rounder voice as she wrapped her arms about Catra’s shoulders, “Should I take off the beard?”

Catra held Adora at the waist, and snickered. “No. I like it.”

The two bowed their foreheads together, and whisked their lips before interlocking in a long-awaited embrace.

“Phpptha!” Catra frantically scraped a white, synthesized strand from her tongue. “Nope; I was wrong. Beard off.”

Adora blushed as she bibbed the elastic, contentedly admiring the woman she loved in all her vigorous idiosyncrasy. It had been just over two hours from MSAD to FZU, with mostly clear interstates and only slightly burdensome city traffic, Ke$ha’s new album “Warrior” keeping her company the entire ride. Seeing Catra for the first time since early fall semester was worth every pining moment spent apart.

Catra shifted her jaw, scouring for further fuzz, and a swath of wild cinnamon hair spilled from behind her ear. Annoyed, she batted the bangs from her vision. “How are Mini-Me and Wrong Sparkles?”

Adora squinted facetiously. “Jo and Meg are relieved to be on break, I think. They definitely miss you. I miss you.” Adora let her canvas shoulder bag fall to the crook of her elbow, and swung it to Catra’s twin bed. FZU’s dorm rooms were narrow, but there would be privacy as Catra’s roommate Lonnie had gone home for the holidays.

“Making the drive,” Adora continued, “you realize we really aren’t that far apart. Makes me feel so bad that I did the RA thing this year and can’t at least come for weekends.”

“The leadership role is so important to you, Adora; I know that. And I’m getting a lot of writing done on those weekends.”

“And making up for classes you’ve skipped in the meantime,” Adora joked.

“Actually, I--” Catra stopped herself. “Sit down.”

Adora took a sly tone. “Is that a good ‘sit down,’ or a bad ‘sit down?’ Because…”

Catra turned to the sliding door of the free-standing closet. “I’m giving you your Christmas gift, dummy.”

“Ooh, but I’m the one in costume!”

“Just…” Catra tried to hide her smile, and extracted a colorful cube topped with a curled plastic ribbon.

Candidly expressing excitement, Adora plopped herself next to her bag on the bed’s edge, the fluffy fake beard a Victorian jabot beneath her chin. “I got you one, too!”

Catra joined Adora on the bed, and pushed the box into Adora’s chest. “You first.” The gift was wrapped with an image painted in carnations, tangerines, and ivories.

“Oh my… my favorite Rothko! Where did you even find paper like--”

“Just open it.” Catra had to bite the inside of her lip to keep a straight face.

With careful fingertips Adora pried delicately at the tape on the wrapping’s impeccably folded ends. “I don’t want to rip it!” The trappings slid free, revealing the sleek packaging of a spherical, high-definition webcam. “Oh my gosh…”

“I know it’s not one of those selfie camera phones, but--”

Adora cupped a hand over her mouth. “No; it’s perfect! Catra, we can be so much closer with this!”

Catra looked away to hide her reddening. “Yeah. The phone calls have been great. But… well, yeah.”

“Oh my gosh,” Adora repeated, grabbing her girlfriend in a joyful squeeze.

Catra closed her eyes and preciously clutched Adora’s forearm until it let go.

“Okay,” Adora propped the webcam in her lap and brought a shiny, green bratwurst of messily taped wrapping from her bag.

Catra raised a knowing eyebrow. “You know they sell gift bags for people like you.”

“Shut up,” flirted Adora, thieving the retort from Catra’s repertoire. “Open it!”

Catra’s bangs fell before her eyes again. She dismissed them, but they immediately moved back to her face. She groaned, but went ahead to make quick work of Adora’s wrapping job.

Catra flipped right side up three double-thick DVD cases from inside the present. “The work of… Spike Jonze… Michel Gondry… Chris Cunningham?” She began examining the cases’ reverse sides. “Oh, these are music videos?”

“Plus booklets of interviews with the directors inside,” Adora detailed. “The guy at the store said this set is perfect for film students.”

“The… guy at the store?”

“Catra, come on. Just some dude working the movies section.”

“Obviously I get that.”

“Oh no… you don’t like them. It’s okay; you can tell me. Catra, I can get you something better tonight!”

“It’s not that. It’s… you needed some random person to help pick a present for me?”

“Catra…” Adora wanted to place her hand reassuringly on Catra’s thigh, but held. “I am so sorry. I’ll take them back. I promise.”

“No,” Catra redirected her angst. “I’m such a brat. I should have just--”

Adora liberated a blubber as she wrapped her arms around Catra one more time.

“...These really are awesome.” Catra held up the Gondry collection. “I mean, look how many Björk videos are on this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Really. We should watch some later.” Catra finally managed to tuck the obscuring hair behind her ear once more.

Adora gave a comforting smile. “You know you could just get a little hair clip, and--”

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Okay.” Adora grabbed her bag, and put the webcam inside as she stood. “I’m coming right back to you after I hit the Christmas schtick on Glimmer and Entrapta.”

“Oh, Entrapta left for the break.”

“What? She didn’t say anything to me about--”

“With the lighting professor.”

“What!? Didn’t you hate him?”

“Don’t tell anyone. Honestly, they’re kind of perfect for each other. Bonded over Czech New Wave, of all things.”

“I never would have guessed.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

The lovers’ momentary pause wasn’t like those on their long phone calls, when comfortable silences seemed to pull them closer together in spite of their distance.

Adora swung the bag strap back over her shoulder. “Well, meet you back here, then? Or?”

“Yeah. Here. Drive safe, idiot.”

Adora leaned forward, and gave Catra a long, firm kiss. “I love you, too.” She took a step out the door, but hesitated. “Hey…”

“Yeah?”

“...Patti or Stones?”

“Stones.”

“Really?”

“Really. Now don’t keep Right Sparkles waiting.”

Adora smirked, and returned the beard to her face.

* * * *

Scorpia swiveled in her barstool, grasping an empty tumbler. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be meeting your girlfriend? You know this is a singles bar.”

Catra claimed the open stool next to her friend - one few would dare take regardless for fear of Scorpia’s massive stinger. The burly woman with the short, waxen undercut was the only film student who could work slate and boom for the same shot. It was true - she’d never joined her classmate at this particular haunt.

“Adora’s off playing Santa for a while,” Catra said. “I need a drink; figured you’d be here.”

“You figured right.” Scorpia swiveled back toward the bar. “Garçon? Two more?”

The dive was sparsely populated, and dimly lit with strings of festive lights. A “Frasier” rerun played on the small corner television. With unnecessary flair the bartender poured a pair of bottom shelf whiskys, rocks.

Catra didn’t wait to down her first gulp. “Never get in a long distance relationship, Scorpia.”

Scorpia gently touched her dark lipstick to the rim of her glass. “It can’t be all bad, can it?”

“No. No, it’s not. It’s just... hard.”

“But worth it for the right person.”

“I guess.” Yet again Catra’s hair loosed from its position to land in her line of sight. “Damnit!”

“Well hey, since you’re here!” Scorpia dug into an oversized purse.

“Oh no, what…”

“It’s not wrapped. I was going to give it to you later but it looks like you could use it now.”

“Scorpia--”

Scorpia held out a black hair clip. “I know it’s not much. I’ve just noticed your hair’s been bothering you, and… well, what are friends for, right?”

Catra accepted the clip, and removed its paperboard backing. It was ovular, and about four inches long with a molded zigzag pattern. She slid it just above her ear, and clasped the stubborn hair. “How does it look?”

“It looks like you.”

“...Thank you.”

“Merry Christmas, Wildcat.”

Scorpia took a long, slow swig of her whisky. On the television, Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce also sat side by side at a sad-looking bar.

Catra lowered her head. Her hair stayed put. “I’ve known Adora as far back as I can remember. Sometimes I can’t believe she’s stuck with me this long.”

“You guys know each other better than any other two people I’ve ever met,” Scorpia observed.

“Yeah.” Catra stared at the melting ice in her beverage, and sank all the way forward into folded arms. “It’s weird actually being in here. Suppose… if the world had been completely different, and you and I had… if we had met, instead.”

Scorpia put down her tumbler. “Well, that certainly would have been different.”

“Imagine, if I was sitting right here, and you came in and sat right there. How might that conversation have gone?”

“Well,” Scorpia turned in to face Catra, “I suppose… I suppose I would have said, ‘Hi, I’m Scorpia.’ And you would have said…”

“‘Hi. I’m Catra.’”

“‘It’s nice to meet you, Catra.’ And I would have said, ‘Are you... at the college? What are you studying?’”

“I would have said, ‘I am. I’m in the film program.’”

“‘Me, too.’ I mean, ‘So am I.’” Scorpia’s voice wavered before she collected herself. She gritted her teeth, then looked directly into Catra’s unobscured, cyan and goldenrod eyes. “And I would have said, ‘How would you like to forget all of it, and just go be happy?’”

Catra smiled. “You always know how to cheer me up.” She turned her head back to her drink, figuring Adora was probably on her way by then. She lifted her hand to her new hair clip, brushing its textures. “You’re a good friend, Scorpia.”

“You, too, Wildcat. You, too.”


End file.
